There have been a number of firms that have cut associate salaries. But there have not been many firms that have needed to slash salaries twice this year. Allen Matkins associates appears to be in their own personal corner of sadness.

A tipster reports:

For the second time this year, Allen Matkins has laid off lawyers and cut salaries for those who still have a job. 2 lawyers were laid off in Los Angeles. I am not sure how many in other offices, but I know there were more. Salary cuts were also part of the package. Associates untouched by the last round of salary cuts were not so lucky this time. Cuts ranged between 15% and 30%. … This cut occurred Thursday October 15. Cuts are effective November 1, 2009. Nice holiday gift isn’t it.

Allen Matkins has not responded to our multiple requests for comment. In terms of layoffs, other tipsters have reported a few involuntary attorney departures. 2nd year associates seem to be the hardest hit.

Multiple tipsters are also reporting the salary cut news.

Following along with all of the Allen Matkins cuts is a little bit confusing; let me walk you through it after the jump.

Back in March, we reported on salary cuts for associates at Allen Matkins. At the time, we reported:

First year salary has been reduced from $160K to $145K. A number of other associates (excluding first years) were informed that their salary would be reduced by 15% or 30%. Those associates were told that they were selected to receive “adjusted” compensation based on their hours, although the actual method for determining which associate would be subject to this salary adjustment was not disclosed and remains unclear.

We now understand that many mid-level and senior associates took a 20% salary hit.

But we also understand that a 20% salary cut has also been executed on the firm’s paralegal contingent. A tipster reports:

You did not mention that paralegals were grouped with associates and also had their salaries cut by 20%.

Associates and paralegals all met individually with two partners who notified us of the pay cut and told us that if we could manage to get our billable hours up to goal before the end of the year we would get the full 20% back. And if we could get to a slightly smaller goal, they would return 10%. There were no explanations about how they arrived at these various figures and at that time we didn’t know that first years’ salaries were only being cut 10%. We were told this measure was needed to avoid further layoffs although there were also a number of people let go that day.

We haven’t really heard about firms cutting salaries on paralegals. Paralegals have been fired for sure. But there just hasn’t seemed to be a lot of economic upside to shaving a few dollars on salaries of people who already don’t make very much money.

More news from Allen Matkins after the jump.

Allen Matkins, a mid-sized California firm, is the latest firm to offer the “hemlock package” of layoffs and salary cuts.

The layoffs at Allen Matkins were relatively small. Only about ten people, six of whom were associates, according to ATL tipsters. But the salary cuts were more substantial. According to one tipster:

First year salary has been reduced from $160K to $145K. A number of other associates (excluding first years) were informed that their salary would be reduced by 15% or 30%. Those associates were told that they were selected to receive “adjusted” compensation based on their hours, although the actual method for determining which associate would be subject to this salary adjustment was not disclosed and remains unclear.

Other tipsters weigh in after the jump.

None of these items is new. But as we were going through our overflowing inbox — if we owe you an email, we apologize for our delinquency (or blame our spam filter) — we came across some associate pay raises not previously mentioned here:

1. King & Spalding: We provided extensive coverage of their recent raise in Atlanta. But we forgot to mention that they also raised starting salaries in Houston, to $160,000 for first-year associates (effective August 1). Memo after the jump.

2. Hunton & Williams: This news surfaced in the comments, but we also received it by email: “Hunton in DC raised to $160k. Memo is floating around, though unfortunately I don’t have a copy.” (If you have the memo, please email us.)

Update: One commenter claims this news is incorrect. But as another commenter notes, the $160,000 starting salary appears in Hunton DC’s NALP form. We trust the NALP form.

3. Allen Matkins: We weren’t familiar with this 200+ lawyer, California-based firm. But since a tipster sent us their pay raise memo, we’re happy to post it (also after the jump).

As always, we rely upon you, our readers, to keep us updated on associate salary developments. If you have news and/or a memo that we haven’t previously posted, please email us. Thanks.